Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Analytic and Empirical Developments

Abstract

This paper seeks to reconstruct and revitalize the famousHirschman framework by providing a comprehensivereview of the current use of `exit, voice and loyalty’. Webegin by critically examining Hirchman’s originalaccount, and then look at the way his argument hasbeen extended in different fields both conceptuallyand empirically. We suggest that while advances have been made,the results so far are somewhat disappointing given the perceptivenessof the original insight. We believe this is because hisapparently simple schema is more complex than it firstappears, and different aspects of exit, of voice, and of empiricalfoundations of loyalty need to be analytically distinguishedin order to produce testable empirical hypotheses abouttheir relationships.